Season of Our Discontent

I feel it, and I’m sure you feel it too – a rush of relief shaking through our bodies in this autumnal wind. I’m not a fan of the cold, but thank God the dreadful summer of 2020 is finally over.

In many ways, the summer season was our generation’s winter of discontent, a period of grave unhappiness. It will be remembered in history as a time where the world’s insecurities were forced on a grand stage for us all to see; and in that play, the many ways in which these United States have been made weak and not united were laid bare.

But seasons don’t last forever, right? The cozy atmosphere of fall with its pumpkin spice treats and football smelling winds are already here, prompting the first step in the slow but inevitable process of moving on. The heartbreak, anger, lost friendships, 200,000 lives and counting lost to COVID, the Black bodies lost to the law all from March through October 2020 may soon become the fuzzy stuff of memory. It gets darker earlier and earlier still. Daylight savings time will end, and we’ll pull the covers up above our battle-worn streets as an invitation to rest.

I’m writing this essay to beg you: please don’t go to sleep yet.

It was dark and we were tired on that winter night when Breonna Taylor and Kenneth Walker fell asleep. That night, Blue Lives showed up to do what they were taught: reign terror on suspected criminals. And in a nation where

• people have a tendency to perceive black bodies as more menacing than white ones¹
• the imprisonment rate for Blacks is nearly six times that of whites and²
• Black people are 3.23 times more likely than whites to be killed by police…³

the Black skin they wore made them automatic criminals regardless of the facts of their lives.

“please don’t go to sleep yet.”

Since slavery, when our nation’s top fears were miscegenation and Black rebellion against white masters, dark skin has been a marker of imminent danger and impropriety. It should come as no surprise to us that a sleepy quarantine evening that began with Uno games and Netflix ended in lead tearing through a Black woman’s South End apartment.

His name is Kenneth. He is another American taught to fear his countrymen and given the right by the Commonwealth to stand his ground against them. Her name was Breonna. She was 26 and just getting the hang of adulthood. She had dreams and was making plans for a future that will never come. They are Black, which was enough to make them suspects, unrespectable people with less “character, morals, and ethics” than Breonna’s killers have in their “little pinky toenails.⁴“

Her death so far, regardless of the facts of her life, has gone unpunished by the very system of self-defined heroes that arbitrates justice. That fact—its villainy in the stories told by our Black community time and again—is the nightmare of racism in America.

Kenneth’s screams haunt our hallways, and the bullet-torn ghost of Breonna Taylor lays sprawled against our floors as time prompts us one by one to close our eyes before Black America’s discontent once again. And this will happen again and again and again…unless we keep our eyes open and pledge to do more this time.

“…the Black skin they wore made them automatic criminals regardless of the facts of their lives.”

Discontent scorches and exhausts everyone around it, but it also brings with it the necessary conditions for a new reality to take hold. From the ashes of the many injustices that this summer has exposed, our generation has an opportunity to build something better: and we must. We—as in me and you—need to continue applying pressure. Today, make a plan for how you will continue to fight for racial equity and criminal justice reform in the cold months ahead. Everyone’s plight will look different, so focus on the things that you can commit to. Here are a few things for you to consider:

1. Vote. Vote for candidates whose policies move us closer toward the dismantling of white supremacy. Vote for referendums and amendments that allow people to hold elected officials more accountable, and vote for levies that bring resources to the communities that most need them. If you live in Jefferson County, click here to see your voting options and schedule time to cast your ballot today.

2. Protest. If you find power in exercising your freedom of speech on the streets, keep at it. In Louisville alone, street demonstrations have applied enormous pressure on city and state officials to make overdue changes in legislation and in police policies and procedures. Examples include:

• Passing Breonna’s Law which bans no-knock warrants and requires officers to wear body cameras when they are conducting warrant operations.
• The creation of a working group to refurbish the city’s civilian oversight board which will now include an Inspector General tasked with investigating inappropriate police conduct (to be voted on in November, last meeting’s minutes can be found here).
•  The firing of Brett Hankison and an inditement on three counts of wanton endangerment (though, notably, none of them related to Breonna’s murder),
• a settlement between the city of Louisville and Breonna Taylor’s family that included changes to LMPD policies and practices that might make it easier for the city to hold officers accountable to their actions.

While these actions are not enough, I’d argue that our elected officials would not have taken on any of the items above had not you and our peers taken to the streets. Keep pushing. 

3. Donate. Make an investment plan. Put aside a few dollars from each paycheck through the winter to provide resources to groups and people on the frontlines of social change. Here are a few places that I like and why:

• Black Lives Matter Louisville, Community Bail Fund: bail creates undue burdens for those trying to prove their innocence in our criminal justice system; especially if you’re Black. This fund exists to bail people out of jail and provide them with post-jail support so that they can get back on their feet.
• Direct Action w/ Talesha Wilson: Talesha Wilson and Chanelle Helm have not only been on the frontlines organizing protests against racial injustice in Louisville, but have also been training new activists and organizers in our city. You can help these efforts by donating directly to Talesha — Cashapp: $TalaWilson or Venmo: @Talawilson
• Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice (LSURJ) – SURJ is a national network that exists to undermine white supremacy by “moving white people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice.” In Louisville, LSURJ does everything from political canvasing, to direct action workshops, to actively protesting against Louisville’s cash bail system.
• Louisville Community Grocery: for a sustainable impact on divested communities, consider helping Cassia Herron and her team develop a community grocery store to serve our neighbors living in food deserts.

4. Demand institutional change where you are. Read this NPR article on how to make workplaces and volunteer organizations more inclusive. Then, analyze where your employer or organization falls short…and do something about it. It is all of our responsibility to dismantle racist and exclusionary structures wherever we encounter them: including in our hearts, workplaces, volunteer groups, and homes.

Whatever it is you do, just make sure you commit to doing something in the months ahead to help us all end the nightmare of racism. And while you’re doing the work…

5. Remember what we’re up against. The season of our discontent began in 1619 and like a virus has evolved through the ages. It’s outlasted the white horror of chattel slavery, Jim-crow, and the delusions of a colorblind world.

This discontent has outlasted its enemies: Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, W.E.B Dubois, and Fannie Lou Hamer.

It’s outlasted prophets against its cause like Soujoner of Truth, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Malcom X, and Dr. King.

It’s outlasting the activists and politicians in our most recent memory that led many to believe it would soon be defeated—Rosa Parks, Stockley Carmichael, Angela Davis, Shirley Chisolm, John Lewis, and President Barack Obama.

It’s outlasted the souls who were unable to outrun the beast, who at times didn’t even see it coming—Ballie Cruthfield, Edward Johnson, Lige Daniels, Richard Wilkerson, Emmitt Till, and the thousands of other Black ghosts buried in rivers and hanging from trees.

It’s outlasted the names we now chant in the dark: Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Tanisha Anderson, Phillando Castille, Atatiana Jefferson, Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Walter Wallace Jr. and so many evermore.

And it will outlast us too…

if we let it.

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1. American Psychological Association (2017) https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/03/black-men-threatening
2. Pew Research (2019) https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/30/shrinking-gap-between-number-of-blacks-and-whites-in-prison/
3. Harvard (2020) https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/blacks-whites-police-deaths-disparity/
4. A quote from LMPD Major Bridget Hallahan who was describing protestors who took to the streets after Breonna’s murder; [writing to other police officers] “our little pinky toenails have more character, morals, and ethics, than these punks have in their entire body.”

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Note: the views and opinions expressed on PolitiFro are those of myself only and do not necessarily reflect the position or views of my employer or any entity with which I am associated. Welcome to my mind and beware: it changes.

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